Sock Zombie Movie

Kathy Danley made a short video featuring an adorable Sock Zombie.

Remember Erin Glaser's Sock Zombies? Well, Kathy Danley went and made a short film with one of them! You can watch Sock Zombie "doing the dating thing" on YouTube.

New Film From Frankie Cordero

The first in a new series of four films from puppeteer/director Frankie Cordero has just been released.

Frankie Cordero (see previous post) is directing and series of four web shorts for a company called 14 Hands. They incorporate a variety of puppetry styles and the first just became available to watch online here. I don't know what this is called, but I like it and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of Frankie's new films.

Öko

Öko is a short marionette film set in "post-apocalyptic world hanging by a string".

Öko is a short Québécois film directed by Alain Fournier about an unusual encounter between a squatter girl and her mysterious neighbor. Set in a "post-apocalyptic world hanging by a string", the film was produced using marionettes created by Mathieu René. The film will be touring the festival circuit beginning this year and a wonderfully moody and absolutely beautiful Öko trailer is available to watch online.

The Monster's Birthday Party

Dracula greets guests to The Monster's Birthday Party.

The Monster's Birthday Party is a short film by Phillip Einfeld that's in the same vein as Spook House Dave and Transylvania TV (me thinks me does detect a trend here). The puppetry in it is sometimes a little stiff, but the level of detail and work that went in to this film is really, really impressive. I hadn't seen Phillip's work before so this was a nice treat. The film is available to watch on YouTube in two parts, here and here.

Space Losers

Step in to the spaced out world of Space Losers.

Space Losers is a new puppet video on YouTube that made by a bunch roommates who live together in Seattle. Personally, I think the two-part video relies on too many lame YouTube puppet video clichés like drug references and swearing (as I've said many times before, profanity isn't humour), but it's obvious that a lot of time was put in to this. It's really imaginative and whatever you opinion of the content is, there's no question that the creators deserve props for the way they've created a whole world for their characters inhabit.

The Sure Sheep

John Kennedy (top centre) and puppeteers on the set of The Sure Sheep.

John Kennedy has teamed up with Heather Henson's company IBEX on a new project for kids called The Sure Sheep, an original short film for Handmade Puppet Dreams for Kids. John's developed a couple of really innovative-sounding techniques for the film; a method for computer animating a puppet's legs and what he describes as "a new puppet skin technique which enables foam sculptors to paint and detail a flexible latex skin directly on a finished foam puppet head."

A really talented crew that consisted of some of the best puppeteers in Florida worked on this, including John himself (who also served as director), Jamie and James Donmoyer, Scott and James Silson, Scotty Shoemaker, Tracie Mick-Shoemaker, Rob Lott, Tony Whitten and several others. You can read more about The Sure Sheep at the link above and also check out the film's storyboards.

The Sure Sheep will be screened at the Smithsonian’s Discovery Theater next weekend on October 3rd and 4th as part of Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams For Kids. After the October 4th screening John will be giving a special puppet workshop teaching how to make the "Sweatshirt Sheep" seen in the film. Plus, it's also the final weekend of the Jim Henson’s Fantastic World exhibit that's currently on display at the Smithsonian so if you're in or near Washington D.C. next weekend (especially with kids) don't miss it.

Old Mother Hubbard

Puppet Heap brings the classic tale of Old Mother Hubbard to life in a short film.

Enjoy Old Mother Hubbard by the always-outstanding Puppet Heap (see previous post). Subscribe to their new Heapcast to get updated whenever they post new videos.

Why I hate riding the subway with puppets

What happens when puppets ride the subway?

Simple. Kinda clever. Watch it here.

More Jungle Fever

Jungle Fever's clever little monkey.

Following up on Friday's post about Jungle Fever 2, most of the original "48 Hour film" can be found in three parts on YouTube. It doesn't look quite as polished as the new series, but it still has a nice cinematic feel to it (click "Read More" to check out the film in three parts below)...

Paper Puppetry

A paper rod puppet is brought to life in a short video on YouTube.

This video by a group called Imaginationshow features a puppet made from paper. Neat stuff.

Spotted via Puppeteers Unite.

Random Moments with Chet

Spend a few moments online today with Chet.

Paul Hokanson has been posting some cute, very short videos to the web that feature his puppet Chet. Check `em out in Paul's Bubble Boy Blog.

Omar's Mother

Omar's Mother is a 2006 short film by Puppet Heap.

I just watched Omar's Mother, a short film about "a boy, his Mother and the worm who brings them closer together." It was directed by Paul Andrejco of Puppet Heap back in 2006 and is one of best puppet shorts I have seen in a long time. I love the design of the puppets. If you browse Puppet Heap's portfolio you can see just how diverse the range of styles that they work in is.

As an added bonus, check out this outtake from Omar's Mother to see how Puppet Heap shot the film against bluescreen.

Another Steve The Vampire Short

Steve the Vampire's Mom finds Jesus in the latest puppet short from Elmwood Productions.

Just out is Steve The Vampire, Whose Mom Finds Jesus. As I've mentioned before, I really like these and I hope Elmwood keeps `em coming.

Indigenous African Puppetry Films

South African puppeteer Gary Friedman has uploaded a series of films about African puppetry to YouTube.

It's not often we hear about indigenous African puppetry in the West and it's even rarer to actually see examples of it, so it's very exciting to see a collection of Indigenous African puppetry films on YouTube. These were uploaded by Gary Friedman (see previous post), who now resides in Australia, but is originally from South Africa. Gary shot these films while he was living in Africa in the 1980s and `90s and they are a rare treat. Enjoy!

Steve The Vampire Who Works At The Grocery Store

Steve the Vampire Who Works At The Grocery Store is new from Elmwood Productions.

New is Steve The Vampire Who Works At The Grocery Store from Elmwood Productions. I really like these Steve the Vampire shorts. As I wrote before, Vampires have been done to death, but I like Steve a lot and the concept seems fresh and funny. As a puppet Steve is great and has a wonderful bug-eyed, freaked-out expression that perfectly suits the character. If you're familiar with Elmwood's work, the brief cameos by puppets from some of their earlier projects here are a nice touch too.

The one thing I really wanted to comment about though is the direction. There's a lot of great stuff in this video, but the puppet staging and composition ruins a lot of it. Shots are too wide, there is no real use of emphasis and the camera is often positioned so that you can't see the expressions of the puppets and actors properly. It's a good example of what makes filmmaking - especially with puppets - so hard. There are many different elements to think about (writing, design, performance, directing, etc.) and they all have to fit together perfectly like a swiss watch to make something really work.

At the start of 2008 the online puppetry community is producing and distributing so much work that it is truly amazing and a remarkable change from five years ago when there was (I think) one puppet web series - Mario's Word of the Week - and Wil Stackman and I were the only ones blogging about puppetry. Now that we have this fantastic explosion of puppetry blogs and puppet podcasts, the challenge this year and beyond is to raise the level of artistic achievement - tell more stories, tell them even better and collectively take puppetry on the web to the next level.

I don't think there has even been a better time to be a puppeteer. If work like Save Xmas Now, dotBoom, Steve The Vampire and all the rest keep coming and maturing the heights puppetry can reach on the web from here are incredible. I'm sure that somewhere Burr Tillstrom, Tony Sarg, Jim Henson and all the great puppeteers from puppetry's past are watching and smiling.

Jim Henson Puppetry Course Videos

Some rare videos from a course Jim Henson taught at the Institute International de la Marionnette in France in 1987 have recently been posted to YouTube.

Twenty years ago Jim Henson taught a Puppetry for Film and Television course at the Institute International de la Marionnette in Charleville Mezieres, France. About twenty puppeteers from around the world attended (I don't know the complete list of students, but they included notable puppeteers Gary Friedman and Rick Lyon). As part of the course the students produced a series of short films, which are now available on YouTube. The actual films include The Box, Making Muppets, and The Rehearsal. There is also some incredibly rare video of Jim training and working with puppeteers, which can be found here and here.

A big thanks goes to Gary over at Puppetry News for generously making these videos available to watch!

The Monkey Boys' Pet Monster

The Monkey Boys have a brand new short called Pet Monster.

Pet Monster is short film with a hairy twist. It's new from The Monkey Boys.

Thanks to Scott at Monkey Boys for the link!

Fantastic, Trippy Experimental Electronica Video

A new video by experimental electronica artist Nodern makes great use of a great looking puppet.

Oh diamond diamond thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done is a weird, trippy and very cool video by experimental electronica artist Nodern that features an amazing-looking jackal puppet (well, I think it's supposed to be a jackal anyway). You can watch the video here, but Quicktime is required.

Via Boing Boing with special thanks to Ben.

Great Puppet Short: In Private

In Private is a beautifully crafted puppet short by Jason Von Hinezmeyer.

You may not know the name Jason Von Hinezmeyer (formerly Jason Hines), but he's been involved in some really interesting puppetry work at The Center For Puppetry Arts in Atlanta for the past few years. As part of this year's XPT (Experimental Puppet Theatre) program at the Center he's created a great little puppet short called In Private. I love everything about it - the puppets, the sets, the detail, the art direction; it all has a wonderful handcrafted feel to it. Highly recommended.

Credit for this great find goes to Kristin Jarvis. Thanks Kristen!

On The Lot: Spaced Out

Drunken, spaced out aliens from the new fox reality series On The Lot.

On The Lot is a new reality-competition show executive produced by Steven Spielberg and (Survivor creator) Mark Burnett. The show features a cast of undiscovered filmmakers competing for a million dollar development deal at DreamWorks. Essentially, it's American Idol for moviemakers.

One of the one shorts featured in last night's episode was Spaced Out, a one minute comedy by director Andrew Hunt that's pretty funny, if just a little gross. Spaced Out features alien puppets by Gordon Smuder (see previous post) who along with Charles Hubbell performed the drunken, spaced-out aliens.

To find out what the audience thinks of Andrew Hunt and his puppet short, viewers in the United States can tune in to their local Fox station tonight for the results show. The series also airs on CTV in Canada, Fox8 in Australia and Star World in Asia (check your local listings).